


Chronicles of Dirtmouth and Beyond

by Scarlet_Claws



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Comedy, Drabble Collection, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Slice of Life, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scarlet_Claws/pseuds/Scarlet_Claws
Summary: Life in Hallownest doesn't have to be grand and full of dangers to be an adventure.Slice of life, 100-words drabble collection. Marked complete, but more may be added as I get new ideas.
Relationships: Cloth & Bretta (Hollow Knight), Cloth/Myla (Hollow Knight), Cornifer/Iselda (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 62





	1. Past and Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> I know that there are other things that I should be updating. However, with the whole worldwide situation going on, and the confinement, and stress in my personal life, I'm unable to sit down and work through more complex writing for long periods of times. Besides, Hollow Knight is the perfect canon to write 100-word drabbles and I wanted to try it out for a while. 
> 
> I take requests.

As the dream faded, she chased it, forlorn. She wanted more of the taste of battle, more of the sound of clashing nails and more of the soreness of exhorted muscles. Instead, she found herself in her bed, next to her husband Cornifer. He was only half asleep; he awoke fully when she stirred.

“Is something the matter?” he asked.

“Nothing. A dream of the past.”

He knew her well. That was all she needed to say for him to understand.

“Iselda... I wonder. Do you regret marrying me sometimes? And having given up—“

“No,” she said. She smiled. “No.”


	2. Tiso in Dirtmouth I

“It’s so nice to see a traveller stop by, sometimes,” said Elderbug. “You can rest as long as you want, the bench is all yours.”

Tiso made a face. He didn’t want to be stuck there, with some old man talking to him. However, Elderbug didn’t seem to perceive Tiso’s disapproval. In fact, he seems happy to finally have someone to chat with, and no matter how many times Tiso didn’t answer, he didn’t take the hint.

Eventually, Tiso abandoned the bench and had to resolve himself to standing on the outskirts of Dirtmouth, near the map shop, to rest.


	3. Tiso in Dirtmouth II

“Who the heck are you?” asked Iselda, nail at her hip, standing in front of her map shop.

“I’m the great warrior Tiso—“

“Great warrior?” She sneered. “My butt. I see you slinking in the shadows over there. You think I don’t know your kind? I’m warning you now, if you try anything funny, I got a weapon and I will use it on you.”

“You think that you can threaten me?” Tiso cried. “I’m not going to steal anything from your stupid shop, but if you want a fight I’m right here!”

She drew her nail as a response.


	4. Tiso in Dirtmouth III

Tiso groaned in pain as he got up from the ground. Who the heck was that woman? She had absolutely dominated him. This was a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. She didn’t have the right to know how to use a nail, let alone be better at him in using it!

Grumbling about how life was unfair, humiliated, he avoided her gaze and retreated even further from Dirtmouth. Now he was stuck there, just the well that opened its dark mouth on the abyss below, and he still needed a rest.

He should have stayed with the grandpa.


	5. Tiso in Dirtmouth IV

“Is he gone?” asked Cornifer, peering from behind the counter.

“It looks like it,” replied Iselda as she closed the door. “He knows he’s matched now. Won’t be coming back if he’s smart.”

“Are you hurt?” Worried that she might be, he forgot his fear and came to her. “That looked... violent.”

“I’m fine.”

“And he was a scary fellow. It really looked like he was up to something, standing out there in the dark. Can you imagine if he would have come in to steal a map?”

She chuckled, then leaned down to kiss the forehead of her husband.


	6. Teach Me

“Hey, hey!”

Cloth turned around. It was the beetle girl – Betty? Brettina? Bretta. – that was calling her. Cloth stood up from the side of the house and waited for the other to come closer.

“You’re really good with your weapon, right?” Bretta asked, pointing at her massive cub.

“Not that good—“

“Can you slay enemies with it? Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

“Teach me.”

Cloth blinked, taken aback. “Teach you? Why?”

“Because I have enough of being the one that needs to be rescued. One day, I’ll head out there. Beyond Dirtmouth. You need to teach me.”

Cloth smiled. “All right.”


	7. Nola

Bretta sometimes saw sadness in Cloth’s eyes, but she never dared to ask what was the matter until that night. Because that night, she couldn’t find Cloth anywhere until she ventured in the cemetery of Dirtmouth and found her wandering among the old tombstones.

“What is the matter?” she asked.

Cloth shrugged. “I’m thinking about someone I knew.”

“Someone...” That had died?

“You remind me of her, sometimes,” added Cloth before Bretta mustered the courage to ask. “And I miss her.”

“How much? Should I worry?”

Cloth laughed. “Not really. I’ll make sure you’re ready before going back to her.”


	8. A Surprise

Bretta, Nimm, Conifer, Iselda, and even Cloth ducked one after the other under the window, so that whoever might look out of it would have no idea that they would be standing in front of the door. It was Conifer than ran the bell.

Elderbug opened the door and a stunned expression appeared on his face.

“Surprise!” said everyone. Nimm started to play a tune.

“What... what is happening?” Elderbug said.

“We thought you looked sad,” said Conifer, “so we thought that we would throw a party for you.”

Tears welled up in the Elderbug’s eyes, but it wasn’t sadness.


	9. The Challenge

“Fight me!”

Tiso stood on the platform of the Stag Station, his shield raised defensively, ready to beat the shit out of the elder creature that had emerged from the tunnel. However, Tiso’s cry only earned him a bored look from the Stag. It might be the first time anyone tried to provoke him to duel, but he was not the interested in this stranger if he wasn’t going to ride the Stagways.

“No,” he answered.

“I challenge you!”

“Please leave.”

Something in his tone of voice deterred Tiso. He grumbled, lowered his shield, and walked back to the bench.


	10. Crystals on the Ground I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have come up with yet another two bugs to ship.

Cloth didn’t expect someone to be around the corner. That’s why she bumped into her, and all the crystals that the other was carrying spilt on the ground between them.

“Oh,” said Cloth, “sorry.”

The other didn’t reply. She was a smaller bug that looked down so that her eyes would be hidden by the edge of her helmet. She kneeled to pick her crystals back up and Cloth tried to help.

It didn’t take long before their hands accidentally brushed.

The other bug jumped, then ran.

“Wait!” cried Cloth.

She ran faster. Cloth remained too shocked to pursue her.


	11. Crystals on the Ground II

“Oh, did you bump into Myla?” asked Bretta as she walked around the corner.

Cloth looked from the crystals on the ground to Bretta, noticing that she hardly looked surprised.

“Does she... run away like that often?” asked Cloth.

“I think she’s intimidated by you. I tried to convince her that you’re nice but so far she’s been too shy to dare talk to you.”

“Wait. She lives here? And I haven’t met her yet?”

Bretta shrugged. “She’s often gone, down in the mines. But yeah, she does.”

Cloth looked in the direction Myla had fled. Now she was curious.


	12. Crystals on the Ground III

Cloth was the one that carried the crystals, but she let Bretta do the knocking and calling.

“Myla! I got your crystals.”

They waited. And then waited some more. Cloth was starting to wonder if she had gone back to the mine when the door opened. Myla squeaked but Bretta stopped her from escaping.

“Myla, don’t be rude,” said Bretta. “Say hi to Cloth.”

There was a long silence. Then the smallest, squeakiest “hi, Cloth,” made its way out of her.

She was the most adorable bug she had ever seen. Cloth felt her heart melt and her cheeks burn.


	13. Spy

Apparently, Myla was the most industrious bug Cloth had ever met. Every day, she went to the mine early and every day she came back with armfuls of pink crystals. Not that Cloth was spying on her...

Okay, maybe she was spying on her a little. But she didn’t really have a choice when Myla always ran the other way screaming when she spotted Cloth. And the more she was learning about the small miner, the more she caught herself thinking about her.

Cloth didn’t really want to admit it but she was growing enamoured with Myla the shy miner.


	14. The Merchant I

“The merchant is back,” said Bretta at the end of one of their training sessions.

Cloth noticed that she didn’t seem happy about it. “Is something the matter? Who are they?”

“He’s a guy that comes to buy the crystals that Myla mines, but he always rips her off and buys them for way too cheap.”

Anger immediately flared in Cloth’s chest. “What? But can’t she tell him to give her money?”

Bretta sighed. “You know her. She’s too shy for that. He’s an asshole to her.”

Cloth’s fists tightened, but then she started to smile. She had an idea.


	15. The Merchant II

“So, that’s a hundred grains of crystal... How about you give them all to me for a thousand geos?” said the merchant.

Myla muttered something.

“What was that?” The merchant tone was menacing, like he was about to hit her.

She shook her head.

Cloth, that was watching from behind the stranger’s chariot, felt her anger sear a trail through her chest. The merchant’s behaviour was bullying.

“She told me not to intervene,” whispered Bretta. “She wants to handle it on her own.”

“She didn’t tell _me_ anything,” said Cloth, right before she stepped in the open, club in hand.


	16. The Merchant III

“Hey,” said Cloth. “What’s going on here?”

The merchant turned around. Myla briefly looked up, then back down, face very red.

“None of your business,” spat the merchant.

“Is it really?” Cloth stepped close, in the other bug’s comfort zone, and tapped the palm of her hand with her club. “So that means nothing wrong’s here?”

The merchant eyes went from her weapon, to her bulging arms, to her covered face. He was growing paler with each second.

“Nothing wrong,” he squeaked, before he cleared his throat. “I was just about to give her payment of erm— _ten_ thousand geos!”


	17. The Merchant IV

When the merchant was gone, his chariot making its way out of Dirtmouth, Cloth turned to Myla.

“I know you didn’t really want anyone to intervene,” said Cloth, “but I just couldn’t—“

“Thank you,” said Myla.

Cloth, at first, was not sure she had heard Myla right – or heard her at all – because she usually never spoke. But then Myla got on the tip of her toes and pecked her on the cheek, before fleeing inside her house.

Cloth remained awestruck until Bretta came over to poke her repeatedly in the side. And, even after that, she couldn’t stop smiling.


End file.
